GENEVA \u2014 A 64-unit, $30 million housing project planned for a long-vacant space at 595 S. Exchange St. is edging closer to receiving a tax-abatement package from the city\u2019s Industrial Development Agency.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, the developer of a project to convert the former DeSales High School into apartments is getting a tax-abatement package after not requesting one originally.<\/p>\n
At its meeting Friday, the IDA approved what is called an \u201cinducement resolution\u201d for the South Exchange housing project, which has been named Litheo Flats. It features 47 one-bedroom units and 17 two-bedroom units.<\/p>\n
The resolution, approved with one dissenting vote by member Josh Kayne, allows the city to set a public hearing on its application for financial assistance.<\/p>\n
Kayne had many questions for Trey Barbour, senior vice president of development-northeast at Pivotal, the developer of the proposed five-story, 71,000-square-foot project. Ultimately, Kayne said he could not support the measure as presented.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is an incomplete application and we cannot determine project feasibility,\u201d he said, noting it was missing information that other applicants had submitted to the IDA for assistance, including the one filed by Massa Construction for the DeSales project.<\/p>\n
Specifically, Kayne said the document failed to detail payments for various taxing entities over the course of the proposed 15-year, payment-in-lieu-of-taxes schedule. A PILOT provides reduced tax liability for the owner over a specified period.<\/p>\n
According to documents filed by MRB Group, Litheo Flats would receive a total property tax exemption of $324,205, but that\u2019s as far as the number is broken out.<\/p>\n
Kayne said he understood the developers were seeking mortgage and sales tax exemptions as well, but again, those numbers are not filled out in the boilerplate IDA application for financial assistance. While it appears the developers will provide those missing numbers, Kayne said he could not accept the document as presented.<\/p>\n
All other IDA members voted in favor.<\/p>\n
In response to questions from Kayne, Barbour broke down the income breakdown for the apartments:<\/p>\n
\u2022 13 units are reserved for those earning 30% of the Area Median Income, or $21,840 for a single occupant.<\/p>\n
\u2022 19 units reserved for those earning 50% of the AMI, or $36,840.<\/p>\n
\u2022 22 units for those earning 60% AMI, or $43,680.<\/p>\n
\u2022 10 units for middle-income people with incomes lose to the AMI, although Barbour was unable to provide that number at the meeting.<\/p>\n
The area median income is estimated at about $79,435 to $81,310, according to Census estimates.<\/p>\n
A public hearing has yet to be set for the incentives package. The vote for the requested tax breaks could come following the hearing.<\/p>\n
DeSales Apartments<\/p>\n
While more steps are ahead at the IDA for the South Exchange Street project, the developers of the DeSales Apartments have received a PILOT for their redevelopment effort at 90 Pulteney St.<\/p>\n
Massa is converting the former school building \u2014 the gym is not part of the project \u2014 into 17 units of multi-family market-rate housing.<\/p>\n
Originally, Massa did not request a PILOT for the approximately $5.49 million project, but reductions in expected state grant funding, higher bank-financing rates, increased construction costs, and other factors forced them to ask for a PILOT, Massa said on its application. Massa previously was approved for exemptions of $129,935 and $20,000 in local and state mortgage recording taxes.<\/p>\n
Under the updated request for financial assistance, the developer will pay $462,061 for all taxing entities \u2014 county, city, school \u2014 over a 15-year period, compared to about $1 million Massa would have paid without the tax break. After the PILOT expires, Massa would pay full property taxes.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"GENEVA \u2014 A 64-unit, $30 million housing project planned for a long-vacant space at 595 S. Exchange St.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":45863,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[7],"tags":[39,13582,167,65,2811,5435,169,10111,25185,10112,178,26575,26576,24209],"class_list":["post-45862","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-geneva","tag-economy","tag-economy-of-the-united-states","tag-finance","tag-geneva","tag-government-finances","tag-money","tag-mortgage","tag-payments","tag-property-tax","tag-public-finance","tag-tax","tag-tax-break","tag-tax-exemption","tag-taxation"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ch\/116369338138674388","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45862","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=45862"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45862\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/45863"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=45862"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=45862"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=45862"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}